


A Slow and Steady Decline

by WarpedYouth



Category: Sleeping Beauty (1959)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, F/M, Tags will probably be added, all characters based on their 1959 characterizations, but knowing me it will be more important later, maleficent is not a misunderstood woobie, not really yet so much but it will be later, someday i will learn how to write a decent summary..., the maleficent/phillip is one-sided and really only if you squint
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-10-19
Updated: 2019-10-19
Packaged: 2020-12-24 06:50:54
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,063
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21095216
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/WarpedYouth/pseuds/WarpedYouth
Summary: 'Maleficent had truly meant it when she’d said that having caught Prince Phillip was ‘a pleasant surprise’. Peasants tended to break far too easily and far too quickly. A Prince, on the other hand, was one who had been raised to be a leader, who knew they were worth more than to be left chained in a filthy cell. Most importantly, a Prince would not give in so easily just to save his own skin, or even to save someone else’s. A Prince would take time to break.'





	A Slow and Steady Decline

Maleficent had truly meant it when she’d said that having caught Prince Phillip was ‘a pleasant surprise’. Peasants tended to break far too easily and far too quickly, born and bred to have little sense of self-worth mixed with heightened survival instincts that told them it was much better to just give into the fae’s demands instead of attempting to defy her, until they were good for nothing but death or transformation, depending on her mood. A _Prince_, on the other hand, was one who had been raised to be a leader, who knew they were worth more than to be left chained in a filthy cell. Most importantly, a Prince would not give in so easily just to save his own skin, or even to save someone else’s. A Prince would take time to break.

She was glad to see that Phillip lived up to her expectations, struggling against the ropes and the more stupid of her minions who apparently didn’t realize that said ropes made clinging to his legs wholly unnecessary as he was pulled back through the doorway of the cottage. She even heard him shouting at her through the gag tied firmly over his mouth – though she couldn’t understand a single word, it was clear from his furious glares that he was most likely using very un-princely language, and she let out a truly delighted laugh, a sound which caused all those present to briefly freeze in sheer terror. He was definitely going to make her enjoy capturing him…

By the time Phillip had been locked away in her dungeons, no fewer than twenty-three of her minions were left battered and bruised. It was almost impressive. And his behavior only continued to delight her. Each minion she’d sent to him bearing food and drink (the worst of each that her castle had to offer, naturally) came back with the food splattered all over their armor and wiping the drink from their eyes. Some even returned with black eyes and bloody noses. They begged Maleficent to let them chain him so he wouldn’t be able to fight back (‘_Cowards_’ she thought; it was always so much more fun when her conquests were left unrestrained, knowing that their ultimate surrender was purely of their own accord rather than having been forced upon them), though it seemed Phillip had fought the hardest against this particular indignity; not a single minion she sent to complete the deed returned without some wound or other.

Whenever she visited him, he sat in a stony stoic silence, often refusing to even look in her direction. Her taunts on how easy it had been to capture him, how his father would not even know that he was missing, how hopeless his current situation was, all seemed to glance harmlessly off him and she noted his pride, not with annoyance or anger, but satisfaction. After all, she had the time to wait and break him as slowly as he would let her and the time it would take would only make his inevitable fall more delicious. If there was one thing this entire vendetta had taught her, it was patience.

As the days passed since Phillip’s capture and Aurora’s curse had been fulfilled, she found herself relaxing more and more. There had been no sign of those three idiotic fairies – not that she was stupid enough to assume them gone forever; she had Diablo flying out from the fortress daily, scouring the land for any sight of them – and she knew them well enough to know that if they had a plan, either to break the curse or free Phillip, they would implement it straight away. As long as Aurora remained asleep and Phillip stayed in her clutches, she had effectively won. She often gloated as such to her prisoner but still he remained sitting in silence, though he did throw the occasional glare her way. It was significant progress.

It wasn’t until several more days had passed that she finally got a true response from him. She’d started off with her usual taunts before a thought struck her and she took hold of it gleefully. Planting her staff firmly on the ground, the sudden crack making him jump and instinctively look at her, she waved her hand over the orb, conjuring up an image that made Phillip’s eyes widen. It was nothing much, merely the sight of Aurora laid out on her bed in Stefan’s castle, but it was enough for Phillip to give a small vain tug of his chains. “Did you not realize, young prince?” the fae asked, her voice dripping with a feigned innocent surprise. “The peasant beauty you met has been promised to you from the day she was born.” She waved her hand again and the image in the orb changed to one of a small boy peering into a baby’s crib with a look of mild disgust on his young face. “How times have changed indeed; why, just a mere sixteen years ago you were not nearly so taken with your young bride-to-be. What could possibly have changed your mind in so short a time..?”

“Sixteen years can change a lot,” Phillip snapped in an answer, surprising them both though neither of them dared show it. “Though clearly it’s not time enough for some people to get over a slight such as not being invited to a christening…”

Maleficent was not often truly stunned, and when she was it tended to be more from displays of sheer incompetence from her minions than anything else, but Phillip’s words did stun her. That such a foolish young boy imagined he could actually talk back to her… She slowly started to laugh, relishing the slight fear that registered in her captive’s eyes as he watched her. “I shall tell you a secret about the nature of ruling, young prince,” she said, moving closer to him and effectively trapping him completely against the wall as she put her mouth close to his ear, lowering her voice as though they were friends swapping secrets. “You can never let slights go. No matter how petty. Each one you allow is merely invitation for more.” She moved back a step, taking a moment to note the slight blush in his cheeks before she whirled round and exited the cell, leaving Phillip to stew in a mixture of emotions.

**Author's Note:**

> So me and a friend were discussing 'Sleeping Beauty' and we got to thinking...why exactly didn't Maleficent just kill Phillip straight away to make sure her curse wouldn't be broken? Because let's face it, that was instantly just setting herself up for failure right there. Also, we realized that the curse happened and was broken in probably the space of about six hours which...well, it annoyed us a little bit that the good fairies were able to fix everything so relatively easily. So essentially this is just based on us wishing that particular section of the movie had been dwelt on a little more.


End file.
